Trust me on this, there is a huge difference between "cluelessness" (over- or under-valuing players and therefore drafting and/or trading poorly) and "tanking" (deliberately playing to lose with the team that you have.)

This really seems like fun. I know I'm heading towards this. Basic strategy checking then, hope you don't mind:
1. Given a certain season, you would have to search to find all those who had good relatively lengthy careers from that point on.
2. I've never done a draft but I imagine you'd have to have quite a long, well-crafted list of players to be ready for the draft or you could be sucking wind for a long time trying to catch up.
3. Do the leagues have AAA players or should we draft for all of the PA/IPs we will need? If there are a lot of teams in a progressive league, it seems as if it would be difficult in a single-season league to find enough players to make it through a season.
Am I on the right track?

#3 depends on league

1&2 depend upon your current strategy. Like in RL, sometimes you're looking at a small window of opportunity to win a WS... in that case drafting short term solution and trading high draft picks for players who are good *now* is what you want to do. Sometimes you are in a dark dismal rebuilding period and drafting for future success is what you are looking for.

In a prog I am in now, I inherited a bad team... they sucked for a few seasons while I drafted and traded for guys who would have a good stretch at the same time... during that high period I either traded picks for immediate help or drafted guys that could help right away (late in the 1st round picks there's usually a flameout guy or two) and won a WS and challenged for a couple more. It is now 1996... my run is done, and my cupboard is bare... and I'm now putting together a team that will, hopefully, have a decent run in the early 2000's.

Positional drafting is important too. Having a guy that can start and perform well at a key defensive position for a number of season is, IMHO, more important than a generic slugger. Ozzie Smith's are more rare than Mark McGuires.

Great thread Contrarian. I've wanted to join a progressive, but really have no clue on how to draft or what leagues are the best ones. I notice that a lot of them are listed as private too, so it appears it is tough to get into one. If anyone has any suggestions for a progressive league for a newbie to join, please let me know. Perhaps you could start such a league Contrarian. Along with this article, a well developed progressive for players new to such leagues might be a great way to generate interest.

Thanks so much bottomlee. Also for your explanations for some of my questions on other threads. The whole "prof just finished teaching for a month or so and is driving us crazy" thing is like the Damp effect - it only lasts for the start of the season. By mid-June I have a summer course to teach and in a few days work on a book and a translation. But for a few days "stop me before I post again" !

How often do new leagues get started ? One thing I have noticed is a certain weariness with the same old standard among progressives players, looking for new twists etc. which is perfectly understandable. But I would guess that I am not the only one that would feel comfortable at first in progressives that begin in a single year and progress simply, trying more complicated formula later on.

I suspect joining one already in course first is the best idea. But that seems to mean having a roster that already exists, which is also an advantage in many ways. Still it seems like a nice idea to be there at the start, since everyone seems to say that part of the enjoyment is precisely following a franchise for some time and part of that can be setting it up in the first place.

So is progressive world mostly one already in progress, or do new start ups still form and are at least some of them fairly standard, or all the experienced players looking for spice in their life instead ? I realize I will find this out for myself looking at the progressive classifieds regularly, but again, impressions and experiences of those who know and already play in them is helpful for the rest of us and I am probably not the only one just now overcoming a previous sense of being intimidated by how complicated they at first seemed. (Fulbright scholar who is translating a book on Kant from Italian as part of his summer project - trust me, what we do here playing baseball is more complicated than that stuff).

New leagues start about once a month or so. The issues with them are that:

a. They take awhile to fill
b. The initial draft takes a month or so
c. If someone drops out in the middle of the draft it is a huge pain in the ***

Taking over a team is a lot easier if you are willing to wait a season or three to rebuild it. Most teams available stink. I would recommend starting with a single season version. Leagues with complicated rules take a little time to get used to.

I think most progressive players are reasonably experienced. I wouldn't be intimidated by that though, experience isn't a requirement for success.

Italyprof I see you're considering joing us in 1974 in the NWP progressive. I joined this league (my first go at a Prog) in it's third season. It took me a couple of seasons to get my bearings (getting lucky with a top draft pick never hurts) but now I swear by progs. I am also a charter member of another prog (currently up to 2008) which is in it's 14th season. Once you've joined progressive leagues you will not play in open leagues again. BTW, Contrarian is a terrific commissioner who runs a tight ship regarding the drafts and moving everybody along between seasons in a timely manner. You couldn't do better than his league for your first time.